Philosophy Graduate Student Conference: University at Albany, SUNY

Date: April 12th, 2008

Time: 8:45 a.m. - 6 p.m.

Location: Humanities 354, Uptown Campus

Download the Conference Schedule (PDF)

Keynote: Dr. Hilary Kornblith, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Keynote Address: Belief in the Face of Controversy.We all have beliefs about controversial matters. In this paper, I focus on the epistemic status of beliefs held in the face of disagreementwith epistemic peers, those who are comparably well informed, intelligent and so on. We disagree with our epistemic peers on a wide rangeof matters, including moral and political questions, as well as philosophical questions of all sorts. Should the recognition of suchdisagreement lead us to moderate our opinions on these matters, or is it epistemically legitimate to go on believing as we do in the face ofsuch controversy? I argue that a proper appreciation of the epistemic significance of disagreement would force substantial changes in ourbeliefs on a very wide range of subjects.

For more information about theconference, please contact John Milanese at johnrmilanese at yahoo.com